Firewhisky
by Jack of the North
Summary: Hermione has finally started to get over Remus and is ready for someone new. How long will it take for her to realise what she is looking for was right in front of her the whole time. Sequel to Spiced Milk but can be read on its own. SBHG ON HIATUS
1. Chapter 1

**A/N This is actually the last chapter to Spiced Milk, but I thought it would be good jumping off point. **

**A few facts for those just tuning in, Hermione has just moved in with Sirius, as friends. Tonks is due to give birth in about three months to Remus' baby though she is with Kingsley. Harry and Ginny are married. **

**We begin this story with Hermione arriving home after a rough 'one last time' with Remus. A few months before hand, just after Hermione and Remus broke up Hermione seduced Sirius but nothing came of it except guilt. **

**And we begin...**

* * *

Sirius heard the front door shut and lowered his book. From where he was sitting in the drawing room, he could see the hall table Hermione had bought for him last week. He watched as she emptied her pockets onto the table and shrugged off her coat. The light caught her face and he gasped at what he saw. Her lips were red and swollen. Her bottom lip was slightly bruised from what looked like a bite mark. The jaw line on the left side of her face was bruised and she winced as she joined him on the sofa.

"What happened? Were you attacked? Did you fight?" Sirius asked, putting his book down on the coffee table and leaning closer to her to get a better look.

Hermione laughed, tentatively touching her index and middle finger to her mouth.

"No, we didn't fight."

"Well, what the hell happened?" Sirius demanded, running his eyes over the rest of her body, looking for further injury. One of her wrists was bruised in the shape of … in the shape of a handprint.

"We got closure," Hermione said, blushing slightly. Sirius sighed as a myriad of emotions and visions ran through his mind. Remus should never had let the wolf get control of him like that and Hermione shouldn't have let him do this to her.

"I wanted it," she said, anticipating his thoughts. "I wanted rough; I wanted to physically feel the emotions. I wanted him to drive me into that wall. I wanted to feel his pain."

"Why?" Sirius asked, tucking a stray curl behind her ear.

Hermione let out a chocked sob. "I wanted to suffer."

"What?" Sirius said slowly, not quite believing what he was hearing. "Hermione, you don't deserve to suffer, ever."

"I screwed up so badly, Sirius. Not tonight, before. Being with you, pretending I could be friends with him. I love him but I can't be with him. I don't think that I could ever trust him like I did before. And I don't want that," she rushed on, trying to convince herself as much as him. "I don't want _almost _everything, I want the whole lot. I should have just tried to move on when he first broke it off."

Sirius sat there, helpless. He listened as Hermione berated herself, unsure of what to do or to say to make her hurt stop.

"But I clung, I clung so hard to the hope that he would turn around, change his mind and want me back. Dean was a joke, I should have never been with him. Everything just fell apart and then it was right and good and he left Tonks and he wanted to be with me and – and I couldn't do it. I could not do it. I finally got what I wanted and I didn't want it anymore."

Hermione's words came out slurred and disjointed through her tears.

She protested as Sirius suddenly scooped her up and carried her through the house. Up the stairs they went, taking special care not to upset anything along the way. He kicked opened the nicest bathroom in the house's door and deposited her in the middle of the room. He set the tub to filling with a flick of his wand and directed the salts and oils into the warm water.

"Take a bath, relax and then come find me. We'll talk for as long as you want and we'll get you cleaned up. Okay?"

"Okay," Hermione hiccupped. Sirius left her to settle, leaving the door open a crack to hear her if she called out.

When he reached the kitchen to get the first aide box Molly had sent over he was shocked to see Moony stepping through the fireplace.

"What are you doing here?" Sirius all but growled at his old friend.

"Is she here?" he asked, looking around the kitchen as if she was hiding under the table. "I need to talk to her."

"She's upstairs having a bath," Sirius said pushing Remus back towards the fireplace. "She looks like she's been beaten, Moony. What were you thinking?"

Remus ignored Sirius and tried to push past him up the stairs but Sirius blocked his path. They stood glaring at each other a moment before Remus launched himself at Sirius, knocking them both down. Unlike that morning, their fighting was serious and full of anger. Remus slammed Sirius into the ground, pinning him down. Sirius was quicker then Remuc thought though and soon rolled them, connecting his fist to Remus' face. All around the kitchen they wrestled, occasionally picking up objects to use as weapons. They picked themselves up off the floor, drawing their wands and pointing them at each other's throats.

"She's not the innocent party in this Sirius, we're equally to blame. You should see my back; it looks like Crookshanks was using it as a scratching post."

"Don't," Sirius said, disgusted, shaking his head. "She has bruises on her arms and her face. How could you do that to someone you supposedly love?"

"She asked for it!" Remus defended. "And it wasn't all me, the full moon is two nights away!"

"Stop using Moony as an excuse. Her skin was pure and white and you forced her down and marked her. She hurt you and bruised your pride and you can tell yourself whatever you want to help you sleep at night but the fact is, Remus, you hurt her. What was it she said? Oh that's right, that you drove her into the wall, that she felt your pain."

Remus dropped his wand and his eyes, ashamed.

"Is that what it was about, Remus? Making sure she was hurting as bad as you were?"

"I would never want to hurt her as much as I'm hurting. I don't know what happened, Sirius. I just lost control. I tried to back off but she bit me and that was it; I was gone."

Sirius sighed and also lowered his wand. He knew how aggressive Hermione could be when she wanted something. Most people didn't see it but she was a little firecracker. He'd learned that first hand when she had seduced him. They moved to sit down but stopped dead when they heard Hermione's cry of frustration.

"Sirius!" she called down the stairs. "Can you come help me? I can't, I can't get my shirt on, I'm too sore."

"I better go," Remus said, looking up the stairs. When he titled his head Sirius saw a clear bite mark on his neck. Not a hickey but a proper bite.

"I'll be right there," Sirius called. He turned to watch Remus forlornly make his way to the fireplace and floo home.

He found Hermione wrapped in a large bath sheet, standing awkwardly by the bathroom door. First Aide in one hand he used his free one to steer her towards his bedroom, the closest. He set the fire blazing and helped her onto the bed.

"He was here," Hermione stated, it wasn't a question. Sirius empited the box onto the bed and searched for some healing ointment.

"Uh, yeah," Sirius answered, not sure what to say. "You took a fair chunk out of his neck."

Hermione blushed bright red and winced as Sirius applied some ointment to her bruises. She looked through the potions and finding a pain killing one, sculled it in one go.

Sirius instructed her to lie on her stomach and he pulled the towel down, exposing her raw and bruised back. She studied him over her shoulder as he liberally applied the ointment to the scrapes and bruises.

"You fought," she said, another statement. "You're bleeding."

"Just defending your honour, love," he said, winking at her. She handed him a clean cloth out of the box and he dabbed at his split lip.

They were silent as he finished up on her back. He found another pain potion and took it himself. He readjusted her towel and lay on the bed next to her, the way two friends who are familiar with each other do.

She turned her head to the other side to look at him properly. He was staring into the fire, the flame light dancing across his dark features.

"You're a good friend, Sirius. To both of us. Don't be angry at him for this, it wasn't his fault."

"Just get some rest, Hermione," he sighed wearily. Hermione swallowed and turned away, unsure what she had done to upset him.

Sirius felt a stab of guilt shoot through him. He wasn't angry at her, he was angry at himself. Even battered and bruised she was beautiful and his body let him know it. He lay next to her all night, covering her with the blanket while he stayed on top.

The flames danced merrily in the fireplace. As Sirius grew more and more weary he imagined he could see him and Hermione moving together in the flame, skin against skin, touches white hot. Shaking his head, he closed his eyes and finally allowed sleep to claim him, not even aware of the delicate feminine hand that lay in his.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N My first actual new chapter of Firewhisky - no e.**

* * *

Hermione awoke the next morning, naked and curled up next to a warm body. The fire in the hearth had died out long ago and the room was chilly. Pulling the blanket tighter around her, she snuggled into the warm body, confused as to why they were on top of the blanket. Her sleep-filled mind didn't find it at all odd that she would wake up with another person. But as the sun's rays began to break through the window and fall on Hermione's face, her mind began to clear and with a shriek she hastily rolled from the bed, careful to pull her towel with her. Sirius grunted in his sleep, but rolled over and snored on, none the wiser. Replaying the events from the night before, Hermione looked at her wrist to see the bruise nearly gone. She sighed, grateful for Sirius' first aide. Sneaking out of his bedroom, she headed straight for the bathroom. She was still slightly sore and when she looked in the mirror, she saw that all along her collarbone was a row of hickeys that Sirius must have missed with the ointment.

She stepped into the shower and for a moment the hot water seemed to wash away all the worry and the stress and the uncertainty until it all came hurtling back at her, full force.

As she showered a plethora of emotions flitted through body, causing her to feel sick. She couldn't help but wonder is she had made a royal mistake by rejecting Remus. She still loved him, she didn't doubt that and as soon as she had seen him, her fingers had itched to be touching his skin. However, even at the height of her passion she had known that if she were to say yes and get back together with him, in a few months time, when the baby was born, her resentment would have grown and gotten the best of her.

No, she shook her head; she had made the right choice. He didn't know it yet, but Remus would be fine. He will find someone to really love and be with and failing that, Hermione was confident that being a father would help get him through. Besides, she knew for a fact that there was a young woman, a werewolf, who came to see Remus about 'werewolf policies' about once a week at the Ministry. Asking mundane questions and batting her eyelashes at him. From what she heard, Remus would flirt back and on more then one occasion the two had gone out together for lunch. Seems Remus could never really shake his catting ways. No wonder Tonks was never really happy.

Hermione sighed, again confused and unsure if she had made the right decision. She knew Remus loved her and would have been faithful to her. She'd spent countless hours fantasising about a cute little cottage where they could live together and raise their babies. _Their babies._ Hermione's head shot up, spraying water everywhere and hitting her head on the showerhead when she realised what really was the problem here. She didn't want to share him. She couldn't stand the idea of having Tonk's baby in their home, taking Remus' time and love away from Hermione. She wanted Remus to be happy and would never ask him to turn his back on his only child, but at the same time Hermione refused to even entertain the idea of her, him and another woman's child living happily together. Her subconscious had already decided for her and had just failed to tell Hermione the reason why she wouldn't be happy with Remus, but now she knew. It was selfish but in the end, it was for the best.

* * *

When she entered the kitchen, it was to find Sirius attempting to make scrambled eggs. Attempting was the key word here and as she watched Sirius fumble about, she marvelled how anyone could screw up scrambled eggs. She smiled weakly at him as he proudly placed the gluggy eggs in front of her, taking a seat on the other side of the table, across from her. Hermione tucked into her eggs, grateful to get some food, any food, into her stomach. It wasn't that she was particularly hungry but it helped to soothe the dull ache that had formed there.

Sirius watched her eat, the delicate way she buttered her toast, biting off the corner and chewing thoughtfully.

_Stupid Remus, _Sirius growled to himself, _if he had never hurt her then I wouldn't have had to tend to her and her bare skin wouldn't have reignited old feelings. Yes, this was entirely Remus' fault. _

Hermione and Sirius ate in silence for a while. She studied the kitchen, noticing how it had changed over the years with someone actually caring for it and using it regularly. The whole house had changed dramatically. With the exception of Mrs Black's portrait, the house was virtually Dark Magic free. Not that the portrait was Dark, just horribly annoying. She and Sirius had decided to renovate the rooms, one by one, starting from the top and working their way down. After the emotional upheaval of the night before Hermione was keen to do some hard labour and suggested to Sirius they head down to the hardware store and start today.

"The muggle way?" Sirius asked, horrified. "Why?"

"Because, it will be good for you to do something without magic. You'll feel a greater sense of accomplishment," Hermione reasoned. She really wanted to get a hammer and just start pounding on things.

"But I thought we were just going to, you know, designs the room and then get a magical contractor in," Sirius continued, determined to get it accomplished without having to do any actual work himself.

Hermione rolled her eyes and tried a different tact. "Think of it this way, you'll be able to use your hands to tear down everything your family built and with the help of a muggle-born, rebuild it the way you want."

"I guess so," Sirius muttered under his breath.

"What was that?" Hermione asked, smiling sweetly and innocently.

"I said, I guess so," Sirius said louder. He got up and set the dishes to start washing themselves. Hermione finished the last of her tea and headed upstairs to get her things ready.

"Hermione!" Sirius called gently, stopping her in her tracks. She turned to look at him, waiting expectantly. "If you want to talk about last night or anything…"

"Thanks, but I feel better, I think I'm going to be okay." She turned to head back upstairs but paused when she heard Sirius speak.

"I didn't mean your physical injuries," he said.

She didn't turn around but kept her back to him when she replied, "Neither did I."

* * *

**A/N I know it may seem like she's getting over Remus really fast, but she isn't, she's just being brave and trying to be strong...**

**_Reviews make the sun shine! Don't leave me in the dark..._**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N There are parts in this that are soo mushy they even had me rolling my eyes while I was writing it. But just try and read through the corn and I promise it will get better. **

**The first part is dedicated to **_Grande.Vanilla.Skim.Latte_**, who is hard at work selling power tools as we speak. **

* * *

"Hi, can you tell me where the home renovation section is?" Hermione asked the passing sales assistant.

"Start with aisle one and work your way up, everything is home renovations." He hurried off and Hermione resisted the urge the send him off with a rude gesture.

"I want to go that way," Sirius said, pointing to the chainsaws and drills. Hermione looked up and read _Tool Shop_ over the section containing the dangerous tools. Before she could stop him, he was gone.

She stopped another employee. "Where are the books on home renovations?"

"Aisle eight, about five metres down on your left."

He was gone before she could thank him. Memorising the location she went off in search of Sirius. She shook her head when she found him, a confused sales assistant attempting to help.

Sirius stared in wonder at all the power tools, eagerly asking what each one did.

"Did your father suffer a recent stroke?" the sales assistant asked, whispering to Hermione. "Who doesn't know what a drill is for?"

Hermione smiled nervously up at the young man, Tim, or so his nametag read. She stopped and started, talking slowing and then rushing as she babbled.

"My _friend,_ has been out of the country for many, many years. In Africa! Living with native tribes. He left around his tenth birthday, with uh, with his parents. They had a lot of money so he didn't have a lot of experience with hard labour." Hermione laughed a little too loudly and then turned to watch Sirius nearly cut his foot in half with a chainsaw.

"Sirius, be careful!" Hermione cried, snatching the offending weapon away from him.

"Merlin! I want on of those!" He was like a little kid in a candy store and suddenly he didn't think renovating seemed so bad.

Hermione kept a careful eye on Sirius as she explained to Tim they were renovating. He offered to show her to the section of books, which ranged from DIY renovating to building your own hot tub to gardening. While Sirius picked out just about on of every power tool, Hermione choose a number of books on renovating and interior design.

She groaned as she met up with Sirius to find him surrounded by four trolleys, filled with box upon box of power tools, regular tools, nails, screws, bolts; the list went on.

"We don't even have a plan yet," she scolded. He shrugged, still grinning like a little boy. "And did you think about how we are going to get all this home? I think they would notice if we just," she made a wandless motion with her hand, "it all away."

"Come on, Hermione. Don't be such a downer. I'll get it home and no muggle will be any wiser."

Hermione just shook her head and took control of two of the trolleys.

Thirty minutes later, they were finally through the huge lines. Sirius led Hermione around the back of the store to a deserted table and chairs that was obviously for staff to use at lunch breaks. Hermione kept watch while Sirius shrunk the items and packed them into a bag he pulled out of nowhere. Hermione admired his audacity at doing magic so out in the open but before any more thoughts could form he'd grabbed her and Apparated them straight into the hallway on the top floor of Grimmauld Place.

Sirius chose a room at random and eagerly unloaded his packages until they were spread from one end of the room to the other. Hermione tried four times to get Sirius to discuss what he wanted to do with the room but each time he would mutter, "Whatever you want, love," and continue on to the next dangerous appliance. In the end Hermione decided that she would listen to him and design the room all on her own. Taking out her book and settling down in the corner she began to sketch out what she wanted to do with the room. When Sirius asked what he could do, she suggested removing all the old furniture.

"The muggle way!" she reminded him when he raised his wand. Grumbling, he conjured an axe and began hacking into a chair that was no doubt hundreds of years old.

"Sirius, stop!" she cried, but the damage was done. "Antiques, these are antiques. I meant take them out the back so we can determine what can be restored. Then you can go to town with the…" She mimed swinging and axe repeatedly, causing Sirius to release his bark of a laugh. Hermione frowned, playfully tossing a broken chair leg at him.

They worked hard for the rest of the day. When Hermione was finished designing, she joined Sirius in the backyard and decided only the old bureau was salvageable and took an axe to the rest. She thought about all the hurt and frustration and the emotional wreck her life had become and with each stroke she hacked into the wood, she chipped a bit off the emotional scar tissue surrounding her soul. She swung the axe harder and faster until she was no longer hitting wood but the soft ground underneath, spraying dirt up over her until she was a sweaty, muddy mess. She wasn't even aware of the tears that wet her face until her cheeks glistened in the fading sun and she angrily swiped at them, smudging dirt across her cheek. Sirius watched, letting her deplete herself of all of her energy until she threw the axe aside and finally collapsed, broken but purged, ready to be new again.

That night Sirius again lay beside Hermione, watching over her as she tossed and turned. They'd had a quiet dinner and without anything being said the two had adjourned to Sirius' room, where they spoke quietly on the things they wanted to do with the house.

He knew she wasn't doing it deliberately, it probably didn't even cross her mind, but with every soft breath and subtle shift, she moved closer to him; seeking out comfort and security in his warm body. Though he wanted nothing me then to grab her and hold her to him, with ever inch closer, he too would move until he was unawares teetering on the edge of the bed. It was the arm that did it. She snaked out her arm to wrap around his waist and he jerked back, landing unceremoniously on the floor, his tailbone aching. Sirius watched, his eyes level with the edge of the bed and Hermione's still sleeping form, as she felt around for him. Not finding him, she turned over and latched on to an unsuspecting spare pillow. Sirius let out a frustrated sigh, frustrated with himself that he couldn't control himself better. Climbing back into bed he surrendered to his desires and allowed her to wrap her body around his.

He resolved to explain to Hermione the next morning that it probably wasn't the best idea for them to share a bed. Especially if she wanted to stay clothed next to him and not naked underneath him.


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N I had to beat this chapter out of me. That sounded dirty didn't it? lol_

_I'm still not completely happy but thanks to the girls at the Twin Exchange and their girly miming I hope I produced something remotely okay._

_Read on..._

* * *

"I stopped by the hardware store to get some paint."

"Mmm," Sirius said, distracted.

"I have a date," Hermione said despondently, joining Sirius in the kitchen. Sirius turned from the stew he was stirring to raise a dark eyebrow at her. "Don't look at me like that; I'm allowed to have a date."

"I didn't say a word," he said, turning back to the dinner.

Hermione didn't exactly want to date but she thought it would be better to get back on the horse, so to speak, then sit and wallow, relying on Sirius to pull her through.

"No," Hermione deposited her bag and some files on the kitchen table, "you didn't have to say anything; I can read it all over your face."

"Well, it has only been a week and a half since you and Remus broke up."

"No, no, it's been over a year. The other week… that was just a bump in the road to our sperate lives."

"Hmm."

Hermione came up behind Sirius and peered over his shoulder into the pot. "What are you making? It smells great."

Though she missed Mrs Weasley veritable feasts each night, Sirius' simple cooking for just the two of them was a nice substitute.

A cough from the doorway made them both turn quickly. Remus was there, a file in his hand.

"I just missed you at work but I wanted to drop this file in." He placed it carefully on top of the others and with a sad smile at the domestic scene before him, turned and headed back upstairs.

Hermione dropped her hand from where it had been innocently resting on Sirius' shoulder and moved to get plates and cutlery out.

Though it wasn't much, Sirius was glad for the tense truce the threesome had called. Now if only he could shake these niggling attractions.

* * *

Remus arrived home to an empty house. Empty as it had always been. His brief time with Hermione and Tonks was a mocking tease at the way normal people live. Remus wandered to the nursery, a habit developed since Tonks left. He couldn't wait for his daughter to be born. The wolf in him flared up at the fierce protectiveness he felt towards his unborn child. He worried about the child, if she would be born like him. But he had faith in Tonks' strength and that her strong will and determination would be passed on to his daughter, allowing her to get through anything. He shook his head, he was already thinking of the worst. She would be perfect, ten fingers, ten toes and a family of people who loved her.

Remus closed the door of the study and, stripping off his clothes along the way, headed to the bathroom. He stood before the mirror a moment before turning away from what he saw and stepping underneath the shower.

The scratches Hermione had given him were nearly healed. He could have done it magically, but he wanted to watch them heal. He wanted to watch them close up and slowly fade away, maybe leaving behind a scar but probably not. He hated that one day he would wake up and realise he didn't love her anymore. But even as it tore at his heart to see her with Sirius, he knew that he would get over her.

What you need is a new woman, that pretty young thing a works always trying to catch your eye.

Remus shook his head, shaking away the wolf, but could help his mind or his hand as thoughts of the blonde woman floated through his mind.

* * *

The following Friday Sirius sat in the drawing room, reading and pretending like he wasn't waiting to see Hermione before she left on her date. She appeared in the door way and whistled to get his attention. When he looked up, she twirled on the spot and held her arms out for inspection.

"You can't wear that," Sirius said, pointing to the green dress Hermione wore. It was a muggle dress which would make sense since she was going out with Tim, the hardware store man. Tim, what type of name was that anyway?

"What's wrong with it?" Hermione asked, innocently running her hands over the silky fabric that covered her hips. Sirius swallowed and sifted uncomfortable in his seat. There wasn't anything wrong with the dress; it fell to just below her knees, and covered her breasts, leaving only the hint of cleavage, but it was the way the forest coloured silk clung to ever curve in a wonderful display of the woman figure.

Sirius licked his lips. "Nothing," he mumbled. "Nothings wrong with it. You look beautiful."

Hermione smiled at him and shrugging on a black coat, waved and was gone.

Sirius let his head drop onto the table.

Picking himself up, he grabbed a bottle of Firewhisky and some floo powder and flooed to the person he knew would understand.

Remus looked up, surprised, as Sirius stumbled through the fireplace. He nodded towards the bottle in his hand and raised an eyebrow.

"That woman will be the death of me."

* * *

Hermione wearily dropped her keys by the door and shrugged out of her coat. Down in the kitchen she could hear Sirius crashing about. She glanced at the clock and saw it was nearly midnight. Deciding that a midnight snack was in order, she made her way down the dark stairs. As she reached the bottom of the stairs an almighty crash sounded and pots and pans spilled at her feet. She looked up into the guilty faces of Sirius and Remus, where they stood stock still by the stove.

"What on earth are you two doing?" she asked. Sirius opened he mouth to answer and the strong smell of Firewhisky filled the room. "Oh never mind, I can smell you from here." She waved her hand in front of her face for effect. The men looked at each other, a silent conversation going on behind their eyes and then they turned to Hermione, identical boyish looks on their faces.

"Can you make us some milk?" Sirius asked. Beside him Remus nodded enthusiastically.

"For old times sake?" Remus asked, hopeful, his breath just as potent.

"No, Remus, there will be no anything for old times sake anymore." She shook her head at the drunken men.

"For new times sake then?" Sirius asked, rushing at her and grabbing her hand. She laughed and shook his hand off.

"I'm going to bed!"

"How was Timothy?" Sirius asked in a girly voice. He propped his elbows on the banister and rested his chin on his hands, fluttering his eyelashes.

Remus joined in the teasing, tucking a piece of hair behind his ear and hiding a giggle behind his hand. "Timothy!" he echoed until they were both calling out 'Timothy' to her as she exited up the stairs.

"More whiskey?" Remus asked when it became apparent she was ignoring them.

Stumbling into their chairs, Remus drunkenly grabbed the bottle of Firewhisky, sloshing some onto the table and still chuckling.

Sirius nodded in the affirmative. "More whiskey."


End file.
